Peace In South Govt Wistful Thinking

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BURNING ISSUE

Peace in the South govt wistful thinking

By Avudh Panananda

The Nation

The Yingluck Shinawatra government has drawn up a list of 16 priorities to be resolved within its first year in office.

Among the top priorities, the violence plagued southernmost provinces are an insurmountable problem. The government might have made an unrealistic projection to restore peace and normalcy within a year.ion in the strife-torn region is like a pressure cooker gone haywire. And relevant security agencies appear at a loss as to how to quell the violence.

While national and local leaders try to diagnose and prescribe a cure for the southern malady, the Internal Security Operations Command is busy compiling the casualties' report. From the 2004 eruption of violence to May, more than 4,300 people were killed and about 7,600 people injured.

Some 2,295 women were widowed and 4,455 children orphaned.

Buddhists and Muslims were equal victims of terror attacks that claimed the lives of more than 2,300 Muslims and 1,780 Buddhists.

Seven years ago, local residents turned their backs on the authorities.

Soldiers, police and civilian officials often could not gain access to some 2,000 villages.

Presently security forces and civilian officials are welcomed in every village. Army chief General Prayuth Chan-ocha has pinpointed about 10 per cent of the region or some 217 villages under the influence of insurgents.

For a year, the enforcement of emergency rule has been scaled down leaving 12 of 33 districts still plagued by insurgency.

Although the number of terror attacks has decreased, the severity of each attack seems to have intensified, so this is not a time to claim success.

Deputy Prime Minister Kowit Wattana has pledged his utmost efforts to restore peace in the region. He concedes, however, that the strife has become more complicated than the day when violence first erupted with a raid at an Army base in Narathiwat.

Kowit is an old hand at southern affairs and he should remember that the months preceding the eruption of insurgency saw two unusual phenomena - the extrajudicial killing of suspects and the huge numbers of policemen and ex-officers shot dead by unidentified gunmen.

The authorities failed to see the warning signs until it was too late and the insurgency became a full-blown problem.

Leading figures and top minds on security affairs told successive governments to rectify injustice and decentralise power so that local residents would not feel disenchanted. But very little seemed to have been accomplished.

For years, government leaders and top officials pushed for forensic science to bring culprits to justice. More than seven years have lapsed for officials to hone their forensic skills but by the latest count, the courts have thrown out more than half the insurgency-related cases on grounds of lack of evidence.

Local residents are very sensitive to the disappearance and torture of suspects. But a number of young men have still gone missing and speculation about torture has not diminished.

Several insurgent activities have occurred in the wake of perceived injustice inflicted on the local community.

Injustice is undoubtedly a critical factor spawning the insurgency. If Kowit is to succeed in restoring peace and normalcy, then he is obligated to boost the credibility and effectiveness of law enforcement.

It is futile to debate about a grand scheme like the administrative model for the region when local residents just want to see an end to injustice and human rights abuses in order to go about their lives in peace.

Should justice prevail in the South, advocates for secession would find themselves like fish out of water.

-- The Nation 2011-08-23

[KhunBJ]

Serious problem, according to The Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, Sbpac then there was more than 7500 terrorist attacks in the 8 years leading up to January 2011, and in this past month of July , more than 50 people were killed. Past policies did not work, cannot really see any other way forward than to give the 3 restive provinces some kind of autonomy .

Edited August 23, 2011 by metisdead
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[Bakseedaa]

Serious problem, according to The Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, Sbpac then there was more than 7500 terrorist attacks in the 8 years leading up to January 2011, and in this past month of July , more than 50 people were killed. Past policies did not work, cannot really see any other way forward than to give the 3 restive provinces some kind of autonomy .

Either that or Nuke them..! the Thaksin way..!

[bedouin1990]

Why not just let them go? Be annexed by Malaysia. What do these provinces really contribute to greater Thailand anyway?

[metisdead]

Off topic posts removed.

[Steely Dan]

Serious problem, according to The Southern Border Provinces Administration Centre, Sbpac then there was more than 7500 terrorist attacks in the 8 years leading up to January 2011, and in this past month of July , more than 50 people were killed. Past policies did not work, cannot really see any other way forward than to give the 3 restive provinces some kind of autonomy .

You need to ask yourself exactly what 'autonomy' would entail. If it's Sharia law then I can't see any Buddhists agreeing to the explicit discrimination that entails. You either get rid of the problem lock stock and barrel by paying the Buddhist population to be relocated elsewhere or you fight a perpetual guerrilla war as the demands will not stop even if concessions are made.

[floppy]

Does any one ever considered the possibility, I don't know, never been there, that a great amount of the law enforcement and the army personal are with the insurgents